At the Environmental Resilience Institute (ERI), we are engaging communities, businesses, educators, and others through innovative programs that help Indiana stakeholders grapple with environmental change and identify practical solutions. In collaboration with our partners, ERI is developing models for how universities can advance broadly accepted climate and environmental solutions.
Browse our programs below spanning:
The McKinney Climate Fellows (MCF) is a workforce development program administered by ERI with support from IU's Integrated Program in the Environment.
MCF connects undergraduate and graduate students interested in climate, sustainability, and community resilience with career experiences. The program partners with Indiana-based private, public, and nonprofit organizations to host student fellows and provide solutions-based sustainability expertise.
Climate fellows gain valuable experience working full-time in a professional setting; partners receive assistance in sustainability and climate planning from talented students; and Indiana benefits from this critical sustainability work.
The Environmental Resilience Institute’s Resilience Cohort program helps Indiana city, town, and county governments measure and reduce local greenhouse gas emissions and implement climate adaptation strategies.
Participants join a cohort of peers, and each local government receives one-on-one guidance, attends cohort training webinars, gains the opportunity to host a McKinney Climate Fellow, and more. Through this program, dozens of local governments in Indiana have taken steps to address climate change.
The Indiana Resilience Funding Hub (IRFH), jointly administered by ERI and the IU Center for Rural Engagement, helps Hoosier local governments, community-based organizations, and small businesses pursue federal funding opportunities for climate, energy, and resilience projects.
The Hub, made possible by the Rural Climate Partnership and the Energy Foundation, is targeted at communities with fewer than 50,000 residents that lack the capacity to compete for grant funding on their own. IRFH will provide these communities with technical assistance and state-specific environmental expertise in the preparation and submission of competitive grant applications.
Educating for Environmental Change (EfEC) is a professional development program for K-12 teachers to effectively teach the science and policy of climate change. Utilizing hands-on labs and activities, EfEC is deepening educator understanding of key concepts related to environmental change, including how scientists know the climate is changing, how humans are accelerating these changes, and steps to mitigate the severity and impact of climate change.
FARMWISE Indiana is strengthening the ties between Indiana farmers and institutional and wholesale buyers to grow regional food networks, improve institutional food quality, and support local economies.
Through the hiring of five value chain professionals and leveraging the Indiana Value Chain Network, the FARMWISE Indiana team is working to understand buyer needs and connect buyers to regional growers across the state.
With average annual temperatures increasing across Indiana, Hoosiers are becoming more familiar with the risks of extreme summer heat, which include heat-related illness and death.
To help local governments develop and implement heat relief strategies and response protocols, ERI and the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) launched “Beat the Heat” in 2021, selecting Clarksville and Richmond as the program’s inaugural participants.
Through Beat the Heat, both communities hired full-time heat relief coordinators to lead assessments, worked with community members, and developed projects and programs to help residents cope with the health impacts of extreme heat.
Indiana is full of individuals—in every corner of the state and from every walk of life—who are working to make Indiana more resilient in the face of environmental change. Each year, the Environmental Resilience Institute recognizes a few of these individuals by naming them a Hoosier Resilience Hero.
Hoosier Resilience Heroes are educating others about climate change, addressing environmental inequity, and taking action to prepare for environmental change. Their inspiring efforts are making a difference today and for generations to come.
